COMMON REPORT ABOUT EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS
Our group watched three educational videos: "In the kitchen", " Fruits" and "Dog´s body parts". At first we looked them individually and then we had a Skype conversation to bring out the most important things about those videos. We discussed positive and negative sides, things we liked and disliked and, taking all opinions into consideration, wrote a short summary of each video to give a quick overview.
"In the kitchen"
The educational goal of this video is to introduce the kitchen vocabulary to intermediate students, using ostensive means, and to teach them the spelling and meaning of these words. The video was about rabbit family in the kitchen during meal-time. They were setting the table, and words like carrot, plate, to pour out tea were presented during the actions in the video. New words also appeared and remained a side of the main presentation of the story.
For some students it might be hard to remember the words like that. It would be better to also hear the pronunciation in order to include more students. It is good to try to pay attention to different styles of learning - visual and auditive.
In our opinion students have passive role when video "In the kitchen" is used in the lesson, because they only have to watch. As the rabbits are presenting the story of the video it can rather be used with younger children. But for them it is especially important to have the pronunciation with new words. It is suitable for learning phase of the lesson as there were new words but it can also be used in reflection phase to revise the words.
The technical quality was average, because there were bad zooming, too many effects and weird shadows moving all over the scene. The choice of the background music was not the best, because the music in the first part of the video was way too dramatic for being used in a scene where rabbits set the table. The video can be improved by using only one suitable song during the video and including the pronunciation.
"Fruits of the world"
The video focused on meaning of the presented words and gave additional information about new vocabulary. Different fruits were presented using ostensive means - real objects. Also the extra information was given - like the country where they are growing. The countries and continents were showed on a map.
In the first part of the video the pupils are more passive by listening and watching, but afterwards they get "tested" by repeating and revising the names of the different fruits.
This video can be used in all phases of the lesson: during the evocation to introduce the topic, during the learning phase to present and practice new vocabulary and during the reflection phase to revise learnt vocabulary.
At the beginning the video has scenes from the supermarket which are too long, because there is nothing happening. Students could get bored easily while watching. During the whole video there is a lot of background noise, which takes the focus away from the information that is presented. This video can be improved by paying attention to those problems.
This video was the one we liked the most. Although the sound quality was not so well, the usage of real objects and the map makes a good connection with the real life which is an important advantage in the learning process.It can also be easier to remember new words, when you can connect these words with pictures or other experiences, because then they are more consistent in our memories.
"Dog's body parts"
The video presents five body parts of a dog. There is a picture of a dog presented during the whole video and when the specific part is presented, they highlight a part, show the spelling of the word and pronounce it four times. For some words the plural form is also used (paw/paws, leg/legs). The goal is to teach pronunciation and spelling of these words.
The pupils were asked to pronounce the words after the first presentation, so they had an active part in the video.
The video is mostly suitable in the evocation phase introducing the topic "dog". Some parts of it can also be used in a reflection phase to revise the body parts of a dog.
The video reminds more of a slideshow from PowerPoint, which makes it not so interesting to follow. It could have been better to make some variety by using pictures of different dogs or using a real dog. It also would be great idea to give the students some time to repeat the words. Repeating four times every word is nearly too much because you can quickly lose the interest and it is hard to follow the pronunciation. It is important to mention that the pronunciation could have been better as the main educational goal in this video was to teach it.
After having seen these three examples of educational videos, we conclude that educational videos can be an interesting variety during the lessons. Teachers should choose the videos carefully, because the videos obviously have different purposes and not all of them support the pupils learning process. As a teacher you should be always aware of the goal you want to reach in a lesson, and with this goal in mind you can try to find a suitable video.
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny...". (Isaac Asimov).
